As part of their joint Graduate Programs in Biomedical Information and Computer Science, the School of Information and Computer Science (Georgia Institute of Technology) and the Emory University School of Medicine have formulated a long-term research program to extend significantly the utilization and effectiveness of biomedical information. The long-term objective of this program is to bring the contents of biomedical information repositories to bear directly on everyday health care practice, by coupling it with computer utilities for clinical decision-making. A three-year research project is proposed to design and evaluate in clinical practice a pilot computer system that permits clinicians to query the aggregate knowledge contained in medical record data banks. Major project phases include: study of clinical decision processes; logico-linguistic analysis of the problem-oriented medical record; the design and empirical evaluation of a decision-aiding computer system using the knowledge of the medical data bank for on-line clinical consulting; and the formulation of a partial theory of the contents and structure of medical data banks, for subsequent coupling with repositories of biomedical literature.